Drowsy drivers: Study finds motorists asleep at the wheel

A good night’s sleep seems to elude many of us. A recent study conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center found that about half of respondents either had trouble falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, or wake up too early. Sleeplessness can affect your daily performance at work, school, and on the road. Drowsy driving crashes can be hard to detect due to difficult and unreliable reporting, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates there are about 100,000 sleep-related crashes per year and 1,550 fatalities.

A 2005 survey from the National Sleep Foundation found 60 percent of drivers (168 million people) drove while drowsy in the past year and more than a third have fallen asleep behind the wheel. Four percent of these people, or 11 million drivers say they have either been in an accident or almost had an accident.

We’ve all been there—trying to stay awake while driving. Using all the tactics such as opening the window, playing loud music, and drinking caffeine, but the best and safest remedy is to pull over and take a short snooze or not drive at all if you’re tired.

Sleeplessness can lead to slow reaction time, poor vision, missed exits or traffic signs, and trouble staying in the lane. This puts the driver, as well as others on the road, in serious danger. The effects have been compared to driving while drunk.

The groups that are most at risk for drowsy driving are young males under age 26, shift workers, commercial drivers, and those with untreated or undetected sleep disorders. However, there are some things that can be done.

A number of trucking companies are screening their drivers for sleep disorders, such as apnea and helping them to receive treatment. They are also looking at studying the effects of installing a drowsy driving warning system in their rigs. NHTSA recently conducted a prototype study on these devices and found that it could have a positive impact on driver safety, but there are still a number of considerations such as cost to companies and driver acceptance.

For young people, a number of states have instituted graduated licensing laws that help build driving experience through a multi-stage program. One part of the program is a restriction on nighttime driving, which has helped to reduce accidents and deaths by up to 60 percent.

So, what else can be done? Here are some tips to help reduce or prevent drowsy driving.

• Get adequate sleep before you get in the car.
• Take breaks—especially if driving a long distance.
• Arrange for a travel companion to swap driving duties.
• Avoid alcohol and/or medications that can cause drowsiness.
• If feeling tired, pull off the road and nap for 15-20 minutes.
• Caffeine may help, but can take some time to get into your system and when it wears off can leave you even more tired.
• If you have a teen driver, implement your own nighttime driving restrictions.
• Drinking a good quantity of water helps as it prevents dehydration that can cause drowsiness. It also requires you to pull over regularly and stretch your legs for a bathroom break.

—Liza Barth

Comments

[Dom]

Two methods work well for me:
1) On long trips I take a thermos cup of coffee, but rather that drinking it quickly, drink it slowly over three to four hours (this takes a bit of self control). It keeps me alert without the jittery peak and 2-3 hour after crash that coffee seems to normally cause.
2) If you do get sleepy, immediately pull over, drink a half cup of coffee, set your alarm watch for 20 minutes, and take a roadside nap. The coffee won't kick in immediately: you can go to sleep.You will wake up refreshed, alert, ready to go. You'll be surprised at how well you are feeling and will enjoy the rest of the drive.

[Rachaelle Lynn]

If you are packing in a full day at a theme park or a beach, you should be aware that all the activity under a hot sun will dehydrate, weaken, and tire you. Planning to hit the road for a long trip after a full day's activities could set you up for disaster. Nodding off at the wheel for only a very short time, which sleep experts refer to as microsleep, is extremely dangerous. Microsleep is an episode in which someone who is sleep-deprived nods off from a fraction of a second up to thirty seconds. If you are traveling at highway speeds of up to 70 mph, your car will travel 102 feet in just one second. Dozing off for only a second or two is long enough for your vehicle to leave the road or veer into the path of another vehicle.

[twitter.com/vivek164]

Road safety first. This should be the priority of all the drivers to avoid accidents. I have found best gadgets to keep you safe in terms of road safety. First is No Nap . If you are feeling drowsy but needed to keep yourself on the road and just want to make it to your destination as soon as possible without causing a major accident. And you have tried all the un-effective strategies to keep you awake just like drinking 10 cups of coffee, blasting some punk music, or drinking some old stuff like energy drink this is the best gadget for you. The No Nap is a small, easy to use, device that will keep you and others safe during a long, drowsy drive. All you need to do is turn the device on, adjust the wake up angle switch, and place it behind your ear. Then when your head slumps forward as you begin to doze off behind the wheel, the No Nap produces a loud, powerful beeping noise that will snap you out of your snooze. It runs on low battery consumption, and its ergonomic design fits comfortably behind your ear. This gadget has been popular with truckers who spend long hours on the road and it could be useful for keeping many others safe on the highway as well. So why take a risk in driving you might not just save your life but start caring for others too.